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[n7]

ExtremeMHz reviews the BenQ DW1640
AT reviews a few drives, including the BenQ 1640 & NEC 3540A
For the NEC fanbois, here's how the NEC ND-3540A falls short:
Not so great.

Want to buy this burner?
BenQ DW1640 in black & beige.

For those who are wondering why i made this post, read below.

I am a rather avid lurker/poster in GH, & i like to see good recommendations being made when newbies post about their new rig, etc.
While some may consider the optical drive unimportant, i believe it's a key ingredient in a good system, especially if one burns a lot

Sadly, i don't see a lot of recommendations based on facts made on AT, but more based on past experiences.
Here's a little analogy for you:
Now while experience is great & well, just because Intel made some great CPUs in the past doesn't mean they are still the best for everyone.
I doubt many will disagree with that.

Now the point of this blabber is pretty simple: As far as i can see, the BenQ DW1640 is the best DVD-/+RW out there presently.
I am well aware that before the DW1620 & up, they weren't the best.
This is the present though, not the past, & the BenQ DW1640 currently seems to be the best price/performance drive out there.
If this knowledge i've gathered is wrong, please feel free to refute it with some facts (links to reviews, etc.)

So i ask this: Why are over 50% of the posters on this forum recommending the NEC 3540A, a drive that has been proven in many reviews to be an inferior drive?
I realize their 2510 was a revolutionary drive, & the 3520 was quite good, but their current drive is simply not the best out there at all.
Another analogy to reflect this would be me recommending the Intel P4 630 over the AMD A64 3000+, since my last CPU was Intel & i liked how it ran.
Of course, that would be considered blasphemy.

Yet really, that's exactly what those praising the NEC ND-3540A are doing.
I'm very curious to hear what those posters' recommendations are based on after what i've just pointed out


Feel free to comment on this little rant/review

 

[Kernel32]

i've been researching components myself because i'm looking to build a new rig. Up til now, i've only read 1 review on the BENQ, and it seems to be the best one out there now. i agree BENQ is a good brand and i've used them in the past.

I have not seen any reviews stating the NEC is inferior....could you post an example link? They will also be releasing their next gen 4550 or 4540, something like that.

 

[Baked]

*shrugs* CDFreaks seems to like the NEC 3540A just as much as the BenQ DW1640. I've never visited ExtremeMHz, I don't consider them to know exactly what they're actually doing in all those optical drive reviews. *shrugs*

 

[n7]

Alright, how 'bout i put it this way.

In every single review i've seen, the BenQ DW1640 has been considered the best of the bunch. Never have i seen that said of the NEC. It usually has a good number of cons & pros, rather than a good number of pros, & very few cons.

 

[Varun]

NEC makes good burners, people own them and have had good experience with them, so they recommend them even if another company has a burner that slightly edges out the NEC one.

NEC has a strong following and you can get modified firmware for it, plus they tend to update their own firmware as well over time.

I read your link, their biggest gripe was the rip lock, which is not really a big deal as it can be bypassed, they even commended the NEC on its write quality.

I can't argue that the NEC is therefore better than the Benq, but to dismiss the current model so easily does not do it justice.

Like Anandtech says, the Benq is likely the top burner right now, but the NEC is a close second with a possible first with updated firmware.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Baked
*shrugs* CDFreaks seems to like the NEC 3540A just as much as the BenQ DW1640.

I just checked around there, but as far as i can see, they haven't actually reviewed the DW1640 yet.

So not sure how you can say that

Also, while you may consider our own site's reviews no good, AT's review also matched what ExtremeMHz has to say about the drive.

Varun: You make some good points also, but i honestly don't like the idea of having the flash to modified firmware just to achieve similar results to the BenQ using official firmware, & i don't think i'm the only one.

I've seen a few too many threads with stories of how the poster's drive doesn't work after flashing with some funky firmware

(BTW, don't get me wrong, i know the main guys that do NEC's modified firmwares do an incredibly good job)

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

No Silver BenQ burner = I'm not buying it

 

[ShellGuy]

I am running the Sony Dru-710a. I have had not a single coaster from it it almost 200 burns. But then again I only buy sony media. the media you buy makes a great diff.


Will G.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: ShellGuy
I am running the Sony Dru-710a. I have had not a single coaster from it it almost 200 burns. But then again I only buy sony media. the media you buy makes a great diff.


Will G.

The ironic thing is that quite likely, the Sony media you buy isn't even manufactured by Sony :laugh:

But it's true that good media helps.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: ShellGuy
I am running the Sony Dru-710a. I have had not a single coaster from it it almost 200 burns. But then again I only buy sony media. the media you buy makes a great diff.


Will G.

The ironic thing is that quite likely, the Sony media you buy isn't even manufactured by Sony :laugh:

But it's true that good media helps.

What's even more ironic? It's not a Sony burner. It's a Lite-On 1633S (or 1653S). The majority of recent Sony burners have been Lite-Ons. The software package and extra bezels are pretty much the only differences.

 

[ShellGuy]

Both true statements by my research later. But if you ask me the media makes all the diff. Here is a place that tells you about media.


Will g.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: ShellGuy
I am running the Sony Dru-710a. I have had not a single coaster from it it almost 200 burns. But then again I only buy sony media. the media you buy makes a great diff.


Will G.

The ironic thing is that quite likely, the Sony media you buy isn't even manufactured by Sony :laugh:

QFT. I've seen cd's being made in a local shop in india that are sold under the Sony brand name. And I'm not lying at all!

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: ShellGuy
Both true statements by my research later. But if you ask me the media makes all the diff. Here is a place that tells you about media.


Will g.

There's also a program for identifying media, DVD Identifier

 

[shoRunner]

maybe no one has been recommending it since it just because availible for purchase in the US???

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: shoRunner
maybe no one has been recommending it since it just because availible for purchase in the US???

Nah, it's been available at NCIX.com for about two months now, & they ship to the US (pricing is close to Newegg).

The reason no here recommends it is due to lack of knowledge.
Hence why i made this thread up; hopefully they will become informed

 

[Tarrant64]

Just don't do what I did and get impatient and not want to order one and wait for shipping. I needed a dual layer burner and ran to DIT and bought a AOpen. Probably out of maybe 100 burns, 30 or more were coasters. It does well with dual layer, but I have a lot of dvd's that i burn large files too and it sucks at that. Like somewhere 75% into the burn it corrupts the data and pisses me off something fierce.

However, did buy a NEC3520A for my parents build a few weeks ago. That thing is smokin' and hasn't spit a coaster at me yet. I think for my next dvd-rw updgrade through I'm going BENQ. I really do think you oughta try the burners out for yourself before you can really judge it by review. my LITE-ON works better than AOpen(which somewhere i think the AOpen got a better rating), so umm..yeah. My few cents.

 

[VulnoX]

I just ordered an NEC 3540a, and it was just delivered today actually. I bought it after looking around a bit, and by reading a lot of reviews.

The reviews that got me most were the consumer reviews, like at Newegg, where it has 5 stars and 202 reviews, 99% of them 5 star full marks positive reviews, and the ones that were bad were generally for reasons that had nothing to do with the drive itself, such as it wouldnt work in an enclosure they bought, but several others had no problem, so its an enclosure problem but they gave the DRIVE a bad grade.

Not very smart people.

Now look at the BenQ, it has only one review, which is positive, but has a rating of 3 stars. Could be people messing around, could be actual owners complaining.

See, a reviewer can only tell you so much. They can tell you read and write speeds, its features, etc. But they wont burn over 200 disks and give you a margin of error. They wont use it for a year before giving the review and tell you its reliability.

Consumers will, and will do it with great detail. So thats why I bought an NEC, and why others most likely did. The BenQ may be better, and if it is more power to it, but at Newegg its also more expensive (regardless of how much), and the NEC will do everything it can, even if it does require 5 minutes of tweaking.

I support what you are trying to do, but there is such a small difference between the drives, that its like making a big deal about buying a certain brand of paper because its a little bit whiter than the other.

Edit: I just noticed the Black one has 5 reviews for it, and were positive.

So it seems to be on the ball with the NEC, but still about 200 reviews short. They just seem to be neck and neck drives. Buy the one you like the most for whatever reason.

 

[Oyeve]

I stick with Pioneer.

 

[Kaspian]

Good info n7. I currently own a NEC drive. I've had it for about a year now and haven't had any problems with it. I will probably retire it in the next month or so. I will look in to the Ben Q drives when its time to upgrade. I will compare the best drives on the market at that point in time and go from there. Once again thank you for the input.

 

[jose]

I have 4 NEC drives & 1 Plextor, all are great. But I find that NEC has an advantage because of the modified firmware hacks that are out.

It's only $40, not worth arguing about.. ie. "Who makes the best floppy drive"